by An Liu
If the ordinances of spring are carried out, there will be [untimely] breaking out of new buds.
If the ordinances of winter are carried out, there will be spoilage of the harvest.
In winter,
if the ordinances of spring are carried out, there will be excessive flows [of water].
If the ordinances of summer are carried out, there will be drought.
If the ordinances of autumn are carried out, there will be fog. [5/48/21–22]
5.15
Regulating the standards:
For the great regulation of yin and yang, there are six standards.
Heaven is the marking cord.
Earth is the level.
Spring is the compass.43
Summer is the balance beam.
Autumn is the square.
Winter is the weight.44
The marking cord is that by which the myriad things are marked out.
The level is that by which the myriad things are leveled.
The compass is that by which the myriad things are made round.
The balance beam is that by which the myriad things are equalized.
The square is that by which the myriad things are made square.
The weight is that by which the myriad things are weighed. [5/48/24–28]
The marking cord as a standard:
It is straight without swerving.
It is long and inexhaustible.
It is long enduring and does not wear out.
It reaches to far distances without deviation.
It matches Heaven in Potency.
It matches the spirits in illumination.
[By its means,] what one desires may be obtained,
and what one loathes may be caused to perish.
From ancient times to the present, there can be no deviation from its trueness. Its innate Potency is vast and subtle; it is broad and capacious. For this reason, the Supreme Thearch takes it as the ancestor of things. [5/48/30–5/49/2]
The level as a standard:
It is flat and not bumpy,
balanced and not inconsistent,
broad and capacious,
spacious and abundant,
so as to be harmonious.
It is pliant and not hard,
acute but not injurious,
flowing and not stopped up,
simple [to use] and unsullied,
expansively penetrating and [proceeding in] an orderly course.
It is comprehensive and subtle but not sluggish.
The level makes things perfectly flat without error,
thereby the myriad things are leveled.
The people are without malice or scheming; resentment and hatred do not arise.
Therefore the Supreme Thearch uses it to make all things level. [5/49/4–6]
The compass as a standard:
It revolves without repeating itself.
It is round without turning [from its course].
Great but without excess,
broad and spacious,
feelings and actions are ordered [thereby].
It is expansively penetrating and [proceeds] on an orderly course.
Abundant! Simple!
The hundred forms of resentment do not arise.
The standard of the compass does not err;
it gives birth to both qi and pattern. [5/49/8–9]
The balance beam as a standard:
It is deliberate but does not lag behind.
It is impartial and not resented.
It bestows but is not benevolent.
It condoles but does not rebuke.
It adjusts to an appropriate level the people’s emoluments.
It continues but does not heap up.
Majestic! Brilliant!
Only those [possessing] Potency act thus.
Nurturing, bringing to full growth, transforming, rearing;
the myriad creatures abundantly flourish.
It makes the five [kinds of] grain bear seed,
and the bounded fields be fruitful.
Government [by this standard] does not err; Heaven and Earth are illuminated thereby. [5/49/11–13]
The square as a standard:
It is majestic and not contrary.
It is hard and unbroken.45
It seizes but does not provoke resentment,
[Penetrates] within but does no injury.
It is stern and severe but not coercive.
Its ordinances are carried out but without wasteful destruction.
In killing and smiting, its ends are attained;
the enemy is brought to submission.
The square’s trueness is without error; all punishments are [thereby] suitably fulfilled. [5/49/15–16]
The weight as a standard:
It is hasty but not excessive.
It kills but does not slaughter.
It is filled to completion.
It is comprehensive and subtle but without sluggishness.
It inflicts destruction on things but does not single things out.
It punishes and kills without pardon.
Sincerity and trustworthiness are essential to it,
Strength and sincerity make it firm.
Cleanse away filth! Chastise the evil!
Wickedness may not be tolerated.
Therefore, if correct [policies] for winter are to be carried out, [the ruler] must appear
weak in order to be strong,
pliant in order to be firm.
The weight’s trueness is without error; through it the myriad things are shut away. [5/49/18–20]
In the regulation of the Mingtang,
be tranquil, taking the level as a pattern.
Be active, taking the marking cord as a pattern.
For the government of spring, adopt the compass.
For the government of autumn, adopt the square.
For the government of winter, adopt the weight.
For the government of summer, adopt the balance beam.
Thus dryness and dampness, cold and heat, will arrive in their proper seasonal nodes.
Sweet rain and fertile dew will descend in their proper times.[5/49/22–23]
Translated by John S. Major
1. Zhaoyao , “Far Flight” in Schafer’s translation, is a bright star in the constellation Boötes. It was envisioned by the Chinese as the last star in the “handle” of the constellation beidou , “Northern Dipper” (usually called the “Big Dipper” in English). See Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void: T’ang Approaches to the Stars (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 239. The direction to which the Dipper’s handle points shifts one Chinese degree (1d) per day with respect to the horizon—that is, one full rotation per solar year. It thus marks out directions on the horizon, which in turn are correlated with the lunar months. In the context of the Huainanzi, the reference to Zhaoyao as a moving pointer is probably not to the constellation itself but to the depiction of the constellation on the round “heaven plate” of the “cosmograph” (shi ), an astronomical/astrological instrument that mimicked the movements of the Dipper.
2. Otters, which sometimes arrange fish that they have caught in a neat line on the bank of a stream, were thus thought in ancient China to “sacrifice” fish in a ritualistic manner. See also 5.9 and 9.28.
3. On “water gathered from the eight winds,” see 4.6: “The clouds of the eight outlying regions, the eight distant regions, and the eight marshes bring rain to the nine provinces and produce harmony in the central province.” The implication here would seem to be that rainwater was collected for ritual use.
4. The Chinese word yang means both “sheep” and “goat,” without distinguishing between the two. A more exact but less graceful translation would be “ovicaprid.” We choose the translation “sheep” rather than “goat” because in early China, sheep seem to have been preferred to goats as sacrificial animals.
5. Yang ordinarily means “poplar.” We follow the Er
Ya in taking it as a type of willow in this instance.
6. Reading ju as gou .
7. Following Gao You’s gloss of yuan as “auspicious.”
8. Reading wu as yan .
9. The Cudrania, or false-mulberry tree, is an alternative source of food for silkworms when mulberry leaves are not available.
10. Reading qu as qu .
11. Reading qin as jiu , as in TPYL.
12. Reading quan as guan , as in TPYL.
13. Ji is a weapon with a long, curved blade mounted to the end of a pole, similar to the medieval European glaive.
14. The turn-tongue, fanshe , is a kind of bird, possibly a blackbird, that can imitate the songs of other birds. The blackbird is more commonly known as the hundred-tongue (bai she ). See 16.44.
15. Reading luo as luo , “naked”—that is, hairless. Five-Phase theory calls for creatures of the “naked class”—that is, humans—to be correlated with the center and midsummer.
16. Hundred Bell is another name for Forest Bell (linzhong ).
17. For the millipede, see also 13.22, 15.12, and 17.151.
18. Supreme Thearch (Shangdi ) was the high god of the Shang culture. Here the term is being used in a more generic sense to indicate the deity who presides over the cosmos in like fashion to the rule of the Son of Heaven over the human realm.
19. Reading keyi , as in LSCQ.
20. The halberd or “dagger axe,” ge , had one or more short, broad daggerlike blades mounted transversely near one end of a pole several feet long. It was one of the principal weapons of ancient China, used by both foot soldiers and chariotmen from the Shang era through the Warring States period. Wang Niansun and Yu Dacheng argue strenuously that the weapon of autumn should be the battle axe, yue . We have taken note of that opinion but have translated the text as written. See Zhang Shuangdi 1997, 1:575–76n.11.
21. Jiechong , “shelled insects”; here the context calls for the meaning “land snails.”
22. This is a rhymed couplet and could be translated loosely as “If a punishment’s applied but does not fit, It reverts upon him who ordered it.”
23. Deleting the word su ; it is superfluous, and the rhetoric of this line calls for a three-character phrase.
24. The dhole (chai ) is a small wild dog of southern Asia. Like the otter, it sometimes leaves uneaten for a period of time small animals that it has killed and so was thought to “sacrifice” its prey. See 5.1 and 9.28.
25. That is, di , presumably the same deity as the Supreme Thearch of August Heaven (huangtian shangdi ) mentioned in 5.6. See Lau, HNZ 5/42/11.
26. Taking hou , “marquises,” here as equivalent here to zhu hou , “Lords of the Land”—that is, all high-ranking nobles.
27. Sha , a pole-mounted thrusting weapon with a swordlike blade fitted with quillons (crosspieces). The medieval European partisan is a rough equivalent.
28. Zhi , literally, “suckling pig,” but here clearly intended to mean swine in general.
29. Literally, a “great drinking and steam-cooking.”
30. The gandan is a night-flying bird of some kind, possibly a member of the nightjar family.
31. Rejecting Lao’s suggested insertion here of the phrase ri duan zhi , “the day reaches its shortest extent,” which already occurs earlier in this paragraph and seems out of place here.
32. Reading qi in place of tian here, contrary to Lao’s suggestion.
33. Reading shi as chi .
34. Reading yao as yao .
35. Chaoxian is an old name for a state occupying part of what is now Korea. The name was revived as the name of the dynastic kingdom that ruled Korea from 1398 to 1910. Chaoxian is often, but incorrectly, translated as “Land of Morning Freshness” or “Land of Morning Calm.” It is probable that the Chinese term was an attempt to transliterate the sound of a now-lost toponym in a proto-Korean language.
36. Possibly a reference to Japan.
37. In China, doors normally faced south, thus facing the sun. The implication is that the land of “north-facing doors” must be below the equator, where doors would have to face north to capture the sunlight. See also 4.6.
38. Zhuan Xu was a legendary figure who fought with Gong Gong for rulership of the universe. See 3.1.
39. The word liang in liangheng shan , “Two(-Peaks?) Constancy Mountain,” may be an intrusion into the text, as it does not appear in this passage as quoted in TPYL.
40. A similar phrase appears in the text for the sixth month. The sense is that the myriad creatures are being speeded on their journey in the waning half of the year. The year is “returning” to its yin phase, and the myriad creatures are returning to a state of quiescence.
41. Reading ling zhi instead of ling zheng . The implication is that in the farthest reaches of the frozen north, the king’s writ ceases to run.
42. The mythical ruler Zhuan Xu sometimes is associated with the south, as in the immediately preceding section on the southern regions. Here he is named as a ruler of the north. Some commentators speculate that this is a consequence of his having been exiled to the north after his battle with Gong Gong. See chap. 3, n. 3.
43. Gui —that is, the drafting instrument, not the (much later) navigational magnetic compass.
44. For the various meanings and metaphorical usages of the word “weight” (quan ), see chap. 3, n. 36; and Griet Vankeerberghen, “Choosing Balance: Weighing (quan) as a Metaphor for Action in Early Chinese Texts,” Early China 30 (2005): 47–89.
45. Reading kui as gui , as suggested by Yu Dacheng.
Six
SURVEYING OBSCURITIES
THE FIRST five chapters of this book established the characteristics of the Way and its primacy in cosmogony and in the cosmological realms of Heaven, Earth, and Time. In chapter 6, “Surveying Obscurities,” the Huainan masters turn to a phenomenon the existence of which they are certain but cannot fully explain. This is “resonance” (ganying ), thought of as a kind of sympathetic vibration in the force field of qi that pervades the cosmos.1 Resonance acts not only on physical objects but on emotions and intentions as well; thus the actions of humans have clear and predictable effects in the natural world. Impiety, injustice, and bad government lead to human catastrophes and natural disasters, whereas following the Way and instituting good government lead to human happiness and celestial harmony. Thus it is imperative, the chapter maintains, for the ruler to look into the roots of bad and good government, identify himself with the One, and make his actions conform to the Way, so as to lay the foundation for the whole world to be harmonious and tranquil. In the end, however, the means by which resonance operates remain cloaked in obscurity, so the phenomenon can be observed but not fully explained. That perhaps accounts in part for why “Surveying Obscurities” is one of the shortest chapters in the entire Huainanzi, although it is arguably also one of the most important.
The Chapter Title
The title of chapter 6 is “Lanming” , which we translate as “Surveying Obscurities.”2 Lan means “to look at, inspect, or perceive something”; it has connotations of seeing something from afar, making a survey, or obtaining an overview rather than getting a minutely detailed look from up close. Ming means “dark, obscure, distant, hard to see”; it has connotations of something obscured from vision by darkness or a miasma. The title well suits the chapter’s content, about which the authors admit, “Even if one has enlightened understanding, it is not possible to [explain why] these things are so” (6.3).
Summary and Key Themes
The chapter begins with two striking images that set the theme for the chapter as a whole.3 A music master is ordered to play sacred music out of its proper context, and his lord is stricken with calamities; a virtuous widow is falsely accused of a crime, and the ruler who authorized her prosecution suffers disasters. When Heaven sends punishments, the authors affirm, there is nowhere one can go to escape from them.
But how does this come about? Admitting that the process is “dark, mysterious, deep, and
subtle” (6.2), the authors do not attempt to explain it directly but approach the problem in a roundabout manner. First, they give examples of resonance in the physical world: the burning mirror takes fire from the sun; the “square receptacle” takes water from the moon. These effects occur because they follow the natural propensity of things, but that does not completely explain resonance. It can be understood only by the sage who fully embraces the Way, who himself is like a mirror. Deeply unmoving, he is able to apprehend the transformations of the myriad things. He is as far above the common herd of humankind as dragons are above snakes and eels, or as phoenixes are above sparrows and swallows (6.5).
Are we astonished by the charioteering skills of Wang Liang and Zaofu, whose control of bits and reins was such that their horses galloped with uncanny speed and smoothness? Consider, then, Qian Qie and Da Bing, who had no need of harness and whips and who controlled their horses through the strength of their will alone (6.6). This was not brought about by “reason or thought, or through the exercise of manual skill.” Rather, it was a manifestation of identifying with the One. So, too, were the regimes of the sage-rulers of high antiquity, such as the Yellow Emperor and, even before him and with still greater perfection, Fuxi and Nüwa. Under those worthies, the world spontaneously brought itself to order, responding resonantly to the Potency of the rulers themselves. Nonhuman beings likewise responded to this Potency, so that such auspicious beasts as dragons, phoenixes, and qilins were seen abroad in the land, and normally dangerous animals posed no threat to people. All this was so because the sage-rulers themselves relied on the Way and its Potency rather than on such qualities as wisdom and precedent (6.7).
Conversely, at the time of the tyrant Jie, last king of the Xia dynasty, not only was misrule prevalent throughout the land, but the myriad things also responded resonantly to that misrule: the seasons were out of joint, mountains became deforested, marshes dried up, and animals behaved strangely. People rejected their own kin and officials conspired in cabals; rulers and ministers were estranged. Endless divinations revealed no answers to these problems, which persisted from the Xia down to modern times, and the breakdown of state order led to incessant warfare and corpses piled on roads and in ditches (6.8).
Which model, then, will the rulers of today emulate? The emperors of the Han dynasty sit on the throne in the manner of the Five Thearchs themselves. Will they continue to follow that Way, practicing Humaneness and Rightness? Or will they rely on the counsel of Lord Shang, Shen Buhai, and Han Feizi, employing the expedients of laws and punishments, warfare, and self-aggrandizement? Those methods, the authors assert, are as ephemeral as shoots from the rootstock of a tree or vine, springing up quickly, only to wither and die. Far better to rely on the fundamentals in the manner of Fuxi and Nüwa, who “achieved Empty Nothingness and Pure Unity, and they did not dabble in petty matters.” Just so, the chapter concludes, “begging for fire is not as good as getting a fire starter, and asking for a drink is not as good as boring a well” (6.9).4